Disney Dollars will not be sold after Saturday

[networkpro]

My apologies if its been posted already, but I did at least search the forums before posting this:

"
ANAHEIM – Disney Dollars, a popular souvenir item and an in-house currency at Disney parks, will no longer be sold.

A Disneyland statement confirmed on Thursday the once popular currency, which could only be used at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, would be terminated effective Saturday.

The Disney Dollars currently in circulation can still be used."

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/disney-715755-dollars-disneyland.html

 

[Goofyernmost]

Darn, and here, after all these years I never bought any. Silly me, I always tended to use regular currency that could be used at places 'gasp" other then Disney if I needed too. I always hate to prepay before I get the thing I'm paying for. However, now I don't have any left over worthless pieces of paper to look at while I become more and more senile.

 

[punkabella]

There was a thread that was talking about the Disney Dollars ending here: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/is-disney-dollars-scheme-ending.911394/

 

[Nubs70]

As a stand alone business unit, Disney Dollars is redundant and not profitable enough.

Hard and electronic currency needs to be spent on higher margin goods and services.

 

[Imagineerwannabe]

There was a thread that was talking about the Disney Dollars ending here: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/is-disney-dollars-scheme-ending.911394/

That will be my post from a while ago when it still seemed to be a rumour...

 

[aaronml]

Various CMs have reported elsewhere that there is nothing on The Hub about this, nor can I find anything on any of the official sites, so I'm somewhat unsure of how true this is.

 

[Imagineerwannabe]

Various CMs have reported elsewhere that there is nothing on The Hub about this, nor can I find anything on any of the official sites, so I'm somewhat unsure of how true this is.

I run a FB group for Orlando parks and one of the members emailed Disney directly yesterday and had it confirmed directly by them.

 

[aaronml]

I run a FB group for Orlando parks and one of the members emailed Disney directly yesterday and had it confirmed directly by them.

:'(

 

[OliveMcFly]

I'm currently on hold, 20 minutes to go! My mother had called earlier to purchase some and they did confirm saying they just found out today as well. Disappointing

 

[DisneyWall-E]

Have to say I'm disappointed by this move, but not surprising. Disney Dollars cost $ to produce and I guess TWDC is strapped for cash.

 

[dreamfinder]

Have to say I'm disappointed by this move, but not surprising. Disney Dollars cost $ to produce and I guess TWDC is strapped for cash.

They do cost money, but they also earn them money. How many Disney Dollars end up going home as souvenirs and never get spent? While the ROI is obviously less than on a plastic gift card, there should still be profit there. Otherwise they would have stopped years ago, I don't think Disney would have kept a money losing venture running for almost 30 years.

 

[DisneyJunkie217]

Just got off the phone with Disney a few minutes ago. They are almost sold out. She said they are down to the $10 Disney Dollars

 

[JohnD]

Just got off the phone with Disney a few minutes ago. They are almost sold out. She said they are down to the $10 Disney Dollars

Not surprised. While they will still take them, you would be foolish to use them. They're now collector's items.

 

[DrewmanS]

They do cost money, but they also earn them money. How many Disney Dollars end up going home as souvenirs and never get spent? While the ROI is obviously less than on a plastic gift card, there should still be profit there. Otherwise they would have stopped years ago, I don't think Disney would have kept a money losing venture running for almost 30 years.

Disney Dollars and Gift Cards are both considered a liability for accounting purposes. So when they are purchased the company gets cash, but they also have to assume the liability for the dollars/card so they net zero. As the dollars/cards are used, the liability is decreased. Over time, they can write off some of the remaining liability by showing that there is low expectation that the balance will be consumed.

This is part of the reason gift cards originally had expiration dates. Companies could write off 100% of the outstanding liability for expired cards. Now the accounting becomes a little more complicated. With electronic gift cards, there is a database of all cards, remaining balances, and age of the account. Statistical models can determine how much liability the company's can safely write off.

With Disney Dollars, it would be much more difficult to track the utilization and determine how much of the outstanding balance is likely to be spent. As the volume of Disney Dolars has gone down and with the difficulty associated with the accounting, I am sure it has reached a point where TWDC has decided that the profit from people buying Disney Dolars for souvenirs is not worth the expense.

 

[CDavid]

However, now I don't have any left over worthless pieces of paper to look at while I become more and more senile.

According to the first post in the thread, they're not worthless and can still be spent.

 

[anchorman314]

They do cost money, but they also earn them money. How many Disney Dollars end up going home as souvenirs and never get spent? While the ROI is obviously less than on a plastic gift card, there should still be profit there. Otherwise they would have stopped years ago, I don't think Disney would have kept a money losing venture running for almost 30 years.

In addition to a production cost, there is probably also some costs associated to the handling and processing of them. With gift cards, once they're produced, there's no cost associated them. They just sit in a display until purchased and activated, and then everything else is handled electronically. But with Disney Dollars, there is a "paper trail" (pun intended). You need daily (most likely) accounting of current stock and purchase/sale transactions, multiplied over who knows how many locations. And I'm guessing that DD cannot be processed in the exact same manner as cash.

DD are definitely a nice souvenir (I actually have some from the early 90s, I believe), but I certainly understand why they're being phased out.

 

[Goofyernmost]

According to the first post in the thread, they're not worthless and can still be spent.

Worthless anyplace other then Disney. I know you can still use them in Disney, however, when you think about it, they took your money and the only way you can get it back is to purchase something that benefits Disney. With cash I can spend it anywhere and have not tied up cash for what are worthless pieces of paper anywhere other then on Disney property. Hence the reason why I have never had any in my possession.

 

[Checkitout]

Just order some myself. They still have $10 left.

 

[TheOrangeBird01]

Now that everybody is buying them, there's obviously some market for these things, even if it is just to resell on eBay for $$$. I don't understand why they needed to totally get rid of them. Disney could have stopped selling the $10 and $20 bills (if there is a twenty ... maybe it was only 1, 5 and 10) and kept the $1, just for the sake of keeping Disney Dollars alive. I'm hoping they might come back for special events, but I'm not counting on it.

 

[Goofyernmost]

Now that everybody is buying them, there's obviously some market for these things, even if it is just to resell on eBay for $$$. I don't understand why they needed to totally get rid of them. Disney could have stopped selling the $10 and $20 bills (if there is a twenty ... maybe it was only 1, 5 and 10) and kept the $1, just for the sake of keeping Disney Dollars alive. I'm hoping they might come back for special events, but I'm not counting on it.

Why would anyone buy a $10.00 Disney Dollar on eBay for $10.00 or more dollars? They are worth $10 at Disney but worthless anyplace else. Could people possibly be that foolish?